Tumor-Promoted Changes in Pediatric Brain Histology Can Be Distinguished from Normal Parenchyma by Desorption Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry Imaging.

Central nervous system (CNS) tumors are the second most frequent type of neoplasm in childhood and adolescence, after leukemia. Despite the incorporation of molecular classification and improvement of protocols combining chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy, CNS tumors are still the most lethal neoplasm in this age group. Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a powerful tool to map the distribution of molecular species in tissue sections.

Classification of pediatric soft and bone sarcomas using DNA methylation-based profiling.

Pediatric sarcomas present heterogeneous morphology, genetics and clinical behavior posing a challenge for an accurate diagnosis. DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification that coordinates chromatin structure and regulates gene expression, determining cell type and function. DNA methylation-based tumor profiling classifier for sarcomas (known as sarcoma classifier) from the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum) was applied to 122 pediatric sarcomas referred to a reference pediatric oncology hospital.

11p15 Epimutations in Pediatric Embryonic Tumors: Insights from a Methylome Analysis.

Embryonic tumors share few recurrent mutations, suggesting that other mechanisms, such as aberrant DNA methylation, play a prominent role in their development. The loss of imprinting (LOI) at the chromosome region 11p15 is the germline alteration behind Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome that results in an increased risk of developing several embryonic tumors. This study analyzed the methylome, using EPIC Beadchip arrays from 99 sporadic embryonic tumors.

Somatic Copy Number Alteration in Circulating Tumor DNA for Monitoring of Pediatric Patients with Cancer.

Pediatric tumors share few recurrent mutations and are instead characterized by copy number alterations (CNAs). The cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is a prominent source for the detection of cancer-specific biomarkers in plasma. We profiled CNAs in the tumor tissues for further evaluation of alterations in 1q, and 17p in the circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the peripheral blood at diagnosis and follow-up using digital PCR.

Interleukin-7 receptor α mutational activation can initiate precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Interleukin-7 receptor α (encoded by IL7R) is essential for lymphoid development. Whether acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)-related IL7R gain-of-function mutations can trigger leukemogenesis remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that lymphoid-restricted mutant IL7R, expressed at physiological levels in conditional knock-in mice, establishes a pre-leukemic stage in which B-cell precursors display self-renewal ability, initiating leukemia resembling PAX5 P80R or Ph-like human B-ALL.

Diastolic Function and Biomarkers of Long-Distance Walking Participants.

Background: The effects of long-distance walking on the cardiovascular system have been little studied.

Objectives: The general objective of this study was to verify these effects on the behavior of diastolic function and the cardiac biomarkers CK-MB (mass), troponin T, and NT-proBNP, in amateur athletes.

Method: This longitudinal study, conducted in 2015, evaluated participants during the following 5 stages: E0 (baseline) before starting the trajectory and the others, E1, E2, E3, and E4, at the end of each day, totaling 244.

Genetic divergence of common bean cultivars.

The aim of this study was to evaluate genetic divergence in the 'Carioca' (beige with brown stripes) common bean cultivar used by different institutions and in 16 other common bean cultivars used in the Rede Cooperativa de Pesquisa de Feijão (Cooperative Network of Common Bean Research), by using simple sequence repeats associated with agronomic traits that are highly distributed in the common bean genome. We evaluated 22 polymorphic loci using bulks containing DNA from 30 plants. There was genetic divergence among the Carioca cultivar provided by the institutions.